Customs (or 4 presents from Nico to Will and the 1 Will gave back)
by Yuppypuppies628
Summary: Accursed elves! Is it not part of their custom to say a proper goodbye? Perhaps not, but it is part of their custom to leave cool presents. Solangelo Elf AU. T because of a little bit of swearing.
1. One

**Disclaimer: I do not own the fantabulous Percy Jackson series or its characters. That is Rick Riordan's only. I can only try to do his characters justice by writing fanfiction.**

 **Meanwhile, enjoy this Elf AU Solangelo Story. I'm not sure if there will be side ships, but there will be brief mentions of a few.**

 **I'm so sorry if the characters are OOC, this is my first fic.**

 **Enjoy!**

One

"Blasted Orcs," muttered Nico di Angelo as he sped through the forest, right hand clutched tightly around a scroll. He ran so fast his bangs, which usually flopped over his forehead, had parted enough so that you could see his stunning eyes. The breathing behind the mask covering his nose and mouth never slowed, for he had been training for this. At some point, he heard the whizz and thud of an arrow shot by one of his companions hitting one of the accursed creatures. _Serves them right,_ he thought, and turned around just in time to see his path blocked by a particularly nasty-looking orc. Nico skidded to a stop.

The Orc grinned unpleasantly and lumbered towards him slowly, showing its equally unpleasant teeth. It seemed sure that Nico was dead meat. This angered Nico, but he didn't let it show. All he did was slip the scroll into his sack, hoping it was discreet enough.

"Hello, Elf," the Orc said, its grin growing.

"Hello, Orc," Nico replied in a lofty tone.

"Won't you show me your beautiful face? I know how you elves pride yourselves on your beauty."

"I'll keep my face hidden, thanks very much," Nico said shortly. The Orc's grin faded a bit. Good.

"Enough pleasantries. Where is the scroll?" the Orc snapped, taking a menacing step forward. Nico widened his eyes, hoping his acting skills wouldn't betray him.

"W-what scroll?" he faked a scared voice, internally grimacing at how weird he must have sounded.

"You know what scroll, Elf," the grin had disappeared now, and Nico was grateful for it. The Orc was now snarling at him. "GIVE IT TO ME!"

"Okay, okay!" Nico whimpered, and took the scroll out of his sack. It was snatched from his hand by the Orc, who bellowed in victory.

" _Paussesei lei vaulumenai!_ " it shrieked in its native tongue. _I have the scroll_. Then it bounded away into the night.

All the while, Nico di Angelo stood stock-still, his face neutral. If the Orc had looked back, it might have noticed and suspicion might have been aroused. But victory had clouded the creature's mind. Elves were usually not so willing to give up their possessions, after all.

A female elf walked up from behind him, followed by a satyr. The other elf was a head taller than Nico, and had dark eyes and skin like most of her clan. Her hair was in its usual braid, and she stood with perfect posture, like the proud leader she was. Nico could see her smiling, even though the mask blocked his vision of her mouth.

The satyr was a bit on the short side, and his features were not as elegant or slender as the elf he stood next to. His face was covered as well, but there was a scraggly beard, a large nose, and a scowl hidden under the piece of cloth. He was wearing the standard protector's uniform: a shirt that read _praetego_ , or the elven word for protect. Unfortunately, his shirt was a bright orange that hurt Nico's eyes. It somehow worked, though- bright orange with the chestnut brown of the fur on his legs. Over the last few days of working with this satyr, Nico had come to tolerate the outrageous color.

"You gave them the decoy," the female said. There was no question about it. Nico allowed himself a smile.

"How were my acting skills?" he asked as a reply.

"Could be better," she told him, a hint of humor in her voice as she ruffled his hair.

"Aw, come on, Reyna!" he mock-complained. He batted her hand away like a cat with a butterfly

"Shut it, cupcakes," the satyr said suddenly, stopping the elves' banter. The jovial mood evaporated quickly, and their faces turned serious.

"What is it, Hedge?" Reyna asked in a low voice. Her hand was on the hilt of her dagger.

"There's a light over that way," Hedge replied, eyes narrowed at a speck in the distance. "Should we check it out?"

Nico frowned. "There could be a malicious group of creatures there. We shouldn't-"

"Wait," Reyna interjected. "I've studied a bit of the geography around this place with Annabeth of the Aethina clan. It is a small village, a bit run down. There aren't many people living there, and there are quite a few abandoned houses there. We could seek shelter in one of them."

"But it is inhabited," Nico commented skeptically.

"Just humans," Reyna waved it off. Nico frowned, but went along with that plan. Their enemy thought them too conservative to be close to humankind. And it was true, for the most part. Humans were just so damn _ignorant_. An elf could just stand there in the middle of the street and perform magic and humans would deny the existence of elves and magic and all the wonderful aspects of their world. Why would _anyone_ want to ignore _magic_? It was completely illogical. Nico thought humans were rather stupid. Well, there was a ton of other things Nico could say about humans that were not nice in the slightest, but...

 _They're_ _territorial as well_ , he remembered as he sneaked through the streets of the town. He recalled reading about how humans disliked having anyone in their living spaces. Some even shot intruders, no questions asked. _Odd_ , Nico thought. _And rude. What if someone desperately needed help?_

"In here," Reyna whispered, and climbed in through an open window. He shrugged and climbed in. His brow furrowed immediately upon seeing the interior of the house.

"You're sure nobody lives in this house?" Nico questioned, flicking a well-dusted desk. He looked over all the pieces of paper on the desk, scribbles all over them. There were some drawings as well, mainly of plants Nico knew to be medicinal. Whoever lived here was probably a healer.

Reyna made a noncommittal gesture. "The human would probably never know anyway. Go find a room."

It was Elven custom that, if there were enough of them, there would be only one person to a room. This house certainly looked big enough to host the three of them. Nico shrugged, and turned back to try and figure out the meaning of the scribbles on the paper. He was always curious about the different languages in the world, and even learned the local language of the humans to some extent. After a while, he was able to decipher the meaning of one of the papers. As he had suspected, it was some medical mumbo-jumbo. Interesting. Nico fished around in his sack until he had found what he was looking for. _This will do_ , he thought, and put it back.

A yelp was heard in the other room, followed by some cursing. Nico sighed in exasperation and trudged towards the noise.

"Hedge, we don't know if there is a human living in here, quit making so much noise, damn it! Really, Hedge, I thought that-" the elf stopped suddenly, eyes widening.

"Um, sorry, I guess I'm not Hedge. My name's Will, though," a young man with sunny blond hair and an equally sunny smile on his face said. Nico felt faint.

"Oh gods," he finally squeaked, turning red. "I'm so sorry, I'll get out of your living space, please don't shoot me!"

"What? Shoot you?" Will looked up in confusion. His bright blue eyes et Nico's onyx ones, and for a moment they just stared at each other.

"You speak the Elvish language," Nico murmured, breaking eye contact.

"Indeed," Will flashed another one of his sunny grins at Nico. "You're an elf, then?"

"Yes," Nico replied curtly. "And no, I do not know any Santa Claus, or a Santa, or a Claus. I am clearly not that short, and I clearly do not wear very tight clothes of ghastly colors. You humans dream up the weirdest things. Like, who in hell would think of that shit?"

And with that, he gathered up all the dignity he had, and huffed childishly, putting his nose in the air.

* * *

Will tried muffling his laughter, he really did.

He had a long day that day. One of the citizens had walked into a trap that they had set up themselves. He always was rather absent-minded a lot, mused Will. Unfortunately, as the town healer, he had to tend to the nasty wound himself, since his apprentice was on holiday at the moment.

That had only added on to his daily load of work, which included checking the children of overly protective parents for any diseases ( _It's just a_ cold _, she's fine!_ ) , reprimanding the town troublemakers, Travis and Connor Stoll, about pranking Katie Gardner, and telling Dakota that he should not drink that much ( _one bottle is enough, Dakota! DAKOTA!_ ).

Then he had stubbed his toe on a couch and started cursing like a sailor when someone wearing a hood and something resembling a ninja mask came in, shouting in the Elvish language to a person named Hedge about not knowing if there was a human in the house or not. And he turned out to be the most adorable elf, insulting humans in a surly tone of voice and blushing and hiding his shyness behind a curtain of toughness.

And he just _had_ to make that comment about Santa Claus and send Will laughing so hard, the people (which is rather far, mind you,) in the next village could surely hear him.

When Will finally laughed it out, the elf was sitting cross-legged on the carpet, looking very much disgruntled.

"Sorry," Will breathed, trying to keep calm. He had questions, after all. "Must you keep your face covered?"

The elf touched his mask, as if he forgot it was there. "Yes."

"Why?"

"That's a secret. Like my face is." The elf was avoiding eye contact. Strange.

"What about your name, then?" Will inquired, eager for knowledge.

"Nope," he said, popping the 'p'.

"Well, I gave you my name, Death Boy," the healer whined. A small chuckle came from the newly dubbed Death Boy.

"Excuse me?" Death Boy asked in an amused manner. "What the hell makes you think that I am somehow related to Death?"

"Um… Good question." Will bit his lip. Where _had_ the nickname come from? "But we're getting off topic. I gave you my name, and I'm letting you stay in my house. Can't you tell me your name?"

"There are two others, too," Death Boy muttered. Will waved his hand dismissively.

"Fine, my name is Nico." he growled after a pause.

"See? That wasn't so bad! You didn't burst into flames or anything, did ya, Death Boy?" the healer beamed. Nico rolled his eyes and mumbled a "not yet", which made Will laugh. Then the elf yawned.

"Oh, you should probably get to bed!" Will exclaimed. Nico made no protest and promptly fell asleep right on the floor.

 _How adorable!_ Will internally squealed as he picked the slender elf up. _And light, too. Are most elves this light? Oh my gods, his mask is slipping! Oh…_

The elf looked angelic. Will had already observed the intense dark brown eyes that looked like they were black, and the long eyelashes, but he did not get to see the features hidden behind the mask. He looked, then, at the small nose and slight mouth, and felt Nico's soft skin under his own hand, and wondered how a living being could be so beautiful. But Will's healer instincts had kicked in, too, and he knew that Nico's body heat was not as it should be- it was much too cold for an elf- and Nico had very pale skin and heavy bags under his eyes.

Will set Nico down in his bed, and went out of the room, already planning which herbs to use for the elf in the morning.

But that, apparently, wasn't the Fates' plan for Will. When he stumbled into his room, intending to wake Nico and treat him, Nico wasn't there.

 _Accursed elves! Is it not part of their custom to say a proper goodbye?_ Will thought angrily. He had planned on getting to know Nico better. He was just about to start cursing a whole lot of things (which may or may not have included Nico, Nico's house, Nico's very adorable nose…) when he saw something strange. A parcel, neatly wrapped. And on it, a note that read: Thank you, Sunshine.

 _That's a nice nickname,_ Will thought. He opened the parcel and found a bunch of rare herbs that could be used to treat all kinds of maladies and illnesses. He smiled and was glad that he didn't curse Nico, even though he really should have said a proper goodbye. Nico's nose really was very adorable, however…

 _What?_ Will slammed on his thought brakes. _Elves haven't even accepted homosexuality yet, Will. Plus, he's way out of your league. Just dream that your future husband has such a cute nose._

 **Hai. So... what do you think of this chaos?**

 **Again, I am so sorry if this sucks. I am horrible at this stuff, and I literally had to push myself to add in some random curse words for Nico just because.**

 **\- S.**


	2. Two

**Hello! I'm back and armed with some more Solangelo stuff for y'all.**

 **Again, Rick Riordan owns the characters. I am merely a mortal trying (and probably failing) at writing fanfiction based off of his wonderful works.**

 **A huge thank you to the people who are reading this and an even** ** _huger_** **thank you to the people who followed and reviewed and favorited and whatnot. It really means a lot to me. Thank you so much.**

 **Enjoy!**

 **two**

"Maybe we should stay at the house again," Nico said to his companions quietly, eyeing the light in the distance. Night was falling, and the return journey was only slightly easier than the long road Mount Olympus.

"Nah, we should steer clear of the humans. Wouldn't want to get too friendly with them, now do we?" Reyna's smirk was evident in her voice and she raised a suggestive eyebrow.

"What does that mean?" Nico spluttered, face turning red.  
"Whoever didn't hear the laughing coming from the living room is probably deaf. You never laugh, not out loud anyway, so the most logical option is that you met someone. And now you want to go back. Isn't that right?" Reyna asked smugly.

"Why are you so fucking smart?" Nico grumbled.

"You're just jealous," she teased.

"Whatever."

"But we can go there, if you like," Reyna said, voice suddenly soft. Nico looked up at the elf that had become something like an older sister to him. She was looking in the other direction, and most of her face was covered, but he knew that she was smiling, probably wanting him to have his shot at making a friend or some shit like that. They had gotten so good at reading each other over the journey, and Nico was glad that he had the fortune to meet Reyna at the crossroads.

"Thank you," Nico whispered, and gave her a quick hug before giving Hedge directions to the village.

Reyna watched him do so, and bit back the huge smile that threatened to break out onto her face. Nico, who was usually so withdrawn, was excited to see this human. She would have to meet him and see if he was good enough for the dark-haired elf. Nico may be scary and have a scowl as his default facial expression, but he needed to be protected.

* * *

Will flopped onto his bed and inhaled deeply. His bed still smelled slightly off. It wasn't bad; not at all! It smelled like a pine forest right after rain, sharp and fresh, but at the same time smelled like some sort of fruit, sweet with a hint of sour. Pomegranate maybe. He suspected that it was the elf- Nico-'s scent that lingered on the sheets. He wanted it to stay there forever.

 _Knock knock_. Will frowned. It was past nightfall, and nobody ever came to his house unless in an emergency. Worried, the healer raced down the stairs- never mind that his hair was messy, never mind that he wasn't wearing a shirt- and threw the door open, ready to take in a heavily bleeding patient.

Instead what he found were two elves and a satyr. One of which looked very familiar.

"Surprise!" Nico said flatly, doing some jazz hands for good effect after a few seconds of awkward silence. Will just stood in the doorway, not comprehending the situation.

"Very eloquent, isn't he?" said the taller elf, whose voice Will identified as a woman's.

"Oi, cupcake! You in there?" the satyr asked. "I think we broke him, guys. How do you fix a human?"

"Guys, stop it. Will? Will?" Nico waved his hands in front of Will's face. The blonde snapped out of his daze and glared at the three of them.

"I thought someone was dying! Couldn't you come in through the window like last time?" Will shouted.

The female elf raised an eyebrow delicately. "I thought humans considered people sneaking in through windows rude. My mistake."

"No, but-"

"Sorry to disturb, Will, but can we come in? We need somewhere to stay the night." Nico interjected before things got complicated. The guy with the orange shirt opened his mouth to say otherwise, but a glare from Nico made the satyr shut it.

"O-okay. Make yourselves at home. Sorry about that," Will said faintly.

* * *

Nico felt like banging his head against the wall. He had originally thought that he was the one without any social skills, but the earlier exchange had just proven otherwise. He wondered what Will thought of him now.

 _Probably a weirdo, like most of the people back at camp_ , he thought sullenly, and he cursed himself for ever thinking of coming back to the healer's house.

Just then, the door opened, and Will came in holding a bowl of some steaming liquid. Nico stiffened a bit, hoping that Will would at least make it quick and tell him that he was horrible and kick him out of the house in under five minutes. Instead, Will had reached Nico's side and set the bowl down next to him. Nico looked at it suspiciously. It looked like some sort of healing concoction.

"Hey," the blonde said awkwardly, offering Nico a crooked smile.

"Hey," the elf parroted back, pulling his mask and hood off. It didn't really matter anymore whether Will saw his features or not, since there was nothing to fear from this human.

"Nice friends you got there," Will ventured, looking down.

Nico laughed without humor and shook his head. "I love them and all, but they can be really annoying, you know?"

Will smiled. "You wouldn't believe it. I've got a friend called Travis and he's smitten with this girl called Katie. And you know what he does?"

"I have a feeling it's not good."

"He pranks her with his younger brother."

"Oh no!"

"Oh yes! His most famous one is when he put chocolate bunnies on her roof on one of our holidays. But my personal favorite is the time when he dyed part of her hair green and she looked great in it! It was the best backfiring ever! I did still have to treat the bruises he got from her punches, though…" Will cracked up, and Nico did too. Soon they were laughing and exchanging stories like they had known each other all their lives. The bowl stood forgotten on the nearby table.

The dark-haired elf found that Will had an eternal thirst for knowledge, and asked so many questions it was hard to answer them all. Will asked about everything, from the clans of elves, which the healer had already known vaguely about, to the music and traditions. This was how they got to the topic of why Nico was there in the first place.

"Well," Nico said, pausing a bit to gather his thoughts. "I told you about how I'm the ambassador of the Haidis clan, right?"

"Right. I still can't get over how a super powerful elf like you is in my room right now!" Will exclaimed.

"I'm not _that_ powerful!" Nico grumbled, trying to hide the blush that was crawling onto his cheeks. " _Anyway_ , us elves have this bi-annual thing we have to do."

"Every year at the summer and winter solstice, representatives from all the clans meet at a specific point and give a status report on everything to the originals, the Olympians. I simply met up with Reyna and Hedge at a crossroads and continued the journey from there. But it turned out that she bore an important message from our allies, the pegasi."

"Pegasi?" Will breathed in awe. Nico had a warm, bubbly feeling inside, seeing the unhidden excitement and enthusiasm in the healer's voice.

"Yeah, those exist, healer. What, have you never seen one before?" the elf snorted. Will looked down.

"Nobody ever believes in anything magic anymore," he said quietly. "Nobody sees anything anymore either. Nobody sees the magic."

Nico frowned. Humans were worse off than he thought. "That's horrible."

"It's fine, though. Continue with the story," Will waved his hand, dismissing the sad thought. The frown stayed on Nico's face, but he did as he was told.

"So she had news from the pegasi about this weird force stirring amongst the Orcs and other _Imus_ creatures. The lower creatures. Apparently, this powerful spirit called Gaia or something like that was giving power to them so that they could overthrow the balance of the world and create chaos."

Will had gone back to being totally enthralled by the story, mouth hanging open almost endearingly. _Wait, endearingly? Get a grip, di Angelo. You don't want a repeat of the Percy incident._ He shook his head and kept going.

He told Will about being chased by the Orcs, and the sleepless nights he had spent guarding Reyna and Hedge while they slept. He described the wind in his hair as he ran for his life and the relief he felt when he had finally reached the destination, having shaken off the Orcs. Words spilled out of his mouth about how terrifying and beautiful the Olympians were.

Nico had never spoken so much since Bianca had joined the Hunters, or what the Artemeis clan called themselves. He had never smiled or laughed so much. He had never felt so much at home. Will was like that, he supposed.

Will was so fascinated by it all, he even begged Nico to teach him some elven customs. Nico obliged.

"Okay, so when you meet another elf for the first time, you touch the fingers of your dominant hand to your lips with a flourish, like this," Nico told Will, and demonstrated the elegant movement, laughing when Will tried to mimic it and failed.

"That's a rude gesture, Will!"

"Oh no, I'm so sorry! What did it mean?"

"Oh, you'd be better off not knowing…"

The two of them were too focused on each other to notice Reyna poking her head through the doorframe with a large smile on her face. _Human or not, those two are going to have little half-elf, half-human babies one day,_ she thought. She chuckled quietly. _Oh what fun I'll have with this blackmail!_

* * *

The next morning, Will woke up on the floor of his bedroom, Nico beside him. Realizing that they must've fallen asleep at some point in their talking, he got up, careful not to wake the slumbering Nico. The blonde noted how Nico wasn't any less cute than the last time he was in Will's house. It just made Will want to caress Nico's face again to see if it was still as soft. But he remembered from their talk the night before that only two elves in a serious relationship did that, and he didn't want to make things awkward.

Will sighed a little. From what Nico said, he was a very busy elf. He delivered messages from his father, the original elf Haidis, to all the other clans and the training camps (Camp Half Blood and Camp Jupiter). Nico also helped train the young campers for battle and ran other errands. The elf would just be too busy for Will. Heaving another sigh, Will trudged downstairs to make breakfast.

He didn't know why he was surprised by the female elf- Reyna was her name, Nico said it last night- sitting at the breakfast table, sipping some kind of herbal tea. But he was.

"H-hello," Will stammered, looking down as he took his seat. Apparently, this was good elf manners.

"Oh, no need for that," Reyna said nonchalantly. "We're friends here, aren't we?"

"W-we are?" Will couldn't help but be intimidated by her. He supposed that it was illogical that he wasn't fazed by Nico My-death-glare-kills-people di Angelo, but was scared to death by Reyna, who didn't even do anything yet. Yet.

"Any friend of Nico's is a friend of mine. Of course, you two seem a bit too close to be _just_ friends… Care to enlighten me on the subject?" the elf was inspecting her nails. Will gulped.

"Excuse me?"

"Don't be silly. You're both mad for each other, are you not?" Reyna scoffed, as if this was common knowledge.

"Please don't kill me for liking him! I swear I'll try my hardest to treat him well!" Will squeaked, eyes wide open. Reyna laughed.

"Sorry," she said, and immediately she sounded different. More approachable. "I was just putting on my scary facade. Did it work?"

"I'd like to say yes," Will responded, heaving a sigh of relief. So she wasn't _normally_ this scary. Great.

"Rey?" a sleepy voice yawned. The two turned around to see Nico walking down the stairs, his hair fluffed up on one side. Will thought this made the elf look ten times more adorable than usual, and bit his lip to keep from smiling too wide.

"Hey, Neeks. We should get going in a bit. Hedge ready?" Reyna said. Nico hummed a 'yes' and poured some herbal tea into a random clean cup. Will tried not to look too disappointed that they were leaving so soon. They did have a home to get back to, after all.

A few short minutes later, Nico's hair was back to normal, and it was time to say goodbye. Will almost wished that they had just disappeared overnight, like last time. Almost. The shy smile on Nico's face as he held his arms out for a hug made up for it.

"Isn't it what humans do when they say goodbye?" Nico asked. Will grinned and hugged the elf tightly, breathing deeply. The elf smelled of pine after rain and pomegranates.

"Is there something elves do when they say goodbye?" Will said when they pulled away.

"We normally don't say goodbye," Nico replied. "But we leave little surprises for each other."

"Wait, what?" Will wanted to ask a million more questions, but Nico had already flashed him an apologetic smile and was gone.

 _Stupid infuriating cute elves who disappear so fast_ , Will ranted in his mind. _Stupid Nico and his cute bedhead. Why is he so cryptic?_

Will sat down at the dining table heavily, glaring at the pot of herbal tea.

 _Wait, what's that?_

The healer narrowed his eyes and gingerly picked up a beautiful locket with a note attached to it. It read: _It's bigger on the inside than the outside. Thanks, Sunshine._

 **Like it? Hate it? Tell me in the reviews!**

 **-S.**


	3. Three

**Hello again!**

 **Again, I do not own the characters. They are Rick Riordan's. Or are they? *wiggles eyebrows***

 **sorry.**

 **It has been over a week and that freaks me out because i feel like I should be updating more... *weird pained alpaca face* I feel like this is healthy for me though, it pushes me to actually write instead of binge watching danisnotonfire and amazingphil all day.**

 **Anyway, another thing that I should say right now! I probably should've said this earlier, but if anyone is finding any similarities between this story and** ** _If My House was a Heart I'd Share it with You_** **by broliloquy, that's because this story was inspired by that one. If you haven't read it yet, please check it out, I love that story to death!**

 **Do I do a disclaimer for that? Like credit broliloquy for the idea? I'm paranoid sorry.**

 **Lastly, (I'll stop rambling on and let you read my somewhat crappy fic) thank you so much to the people who are liking, following, favoriting, or even** ** _reading_** **this fic! There's so much positive feedback and I'm drowning in happy tears.**

 **I'm done with the thing that's always at the top of fics! Yay!**

 **Enjoy!**

three

Will left the window open that night, just like he had for a few weeks now.

It was silly, of course. His friend, Lou Ellen, had noticed it one night and pointed it out, asking him why he didn't close it. Will had blushed and stuttered a response of, "I've been doing it for years now, Lou! How have you not noticed yet?"

Lou clearly wasn't convinced, but she had let the matter drop, much to Will's relief. Lou could be as scary as Reyna when she wanted to be.

He sighed and wondered whether Nico had forgotten about him. Will certainly hadn't forgotten about the elf. He still got up in the morning and tried to catch the now almost nonexistent smell of pine and pomegranate. He still kept some of the herbs, and he wore the locket daily. He even stayed up later than he did before, hoping that Nico would knock at the door or climb in through the window.

A draft of wind blew in through the open window next to him, and Will shivered. Maybe he should give up on the irrational notion that Nico would actually come back and just close the window. He absentmindedly brushed his fingers over the locket, eyes unfocused. _Should I? Should I not? Should I? Should I not?..._

A sudden noise that sounded like someone whacking their head on the window frame startled Will out of his thinking. His head whipped around to find the source of the noise, and finally his gaze settled on none other than Nico, sprawled majestically on his floor, cursing and rubbing his head. Truly a sight for sore eyes.

The elf sat up and seemed to notice Will for the first time. He bit his lip and blushed.

"Hi," he said a bit awkwardly, giving Will a shy smile (which was adorable).

"Hi," Will replied, returning the smile with his trademark grin that tended to blind people with its brightness. "So what brings you here?"

"I just wanted to… um… I wanted to… see how you were doing?" The elf blushed again at the poorly formed sentence. Will just laughed.

"I'm glad you're back, for any reason that you've come," he said sincerely. Nico's face turned redder and he mumbled a thank you.

"But now that you're here, I've got a billion questions for you," Will grinned, rubbing his hands in mock glee.

"Oh no," Nico said flatly. "Questions."

"Oh yes! Now sit your butt down on the sofa instead of the ground, I'll be right back."

...

Nico didn't know why he came back.

Will was a nice guy. That was very apparent, by his easygoing smile and sunny disposition. And he was intriguing, what with his curiosity for the elven ways and his opinions on the dwindling magic in the human world. Not to mention handsome. But all that can't possibly be why Nico felt that longing to return to the light in the woods and climb through the window and talk about random things until the candles burned out. He hardly knew anything about the guy.

And he barely had the time. The Olympians had just announced that Gaia was a threat, and, apparently, the evil grandmother of the Big Three, or the primary Olympians. Haidis sent Nico on more missions than before, and even tried pushing more work onto his sister's shoulders, to which Nico objected strongly. Hazel was still too young for all the work, much less the war that Apaullus said was going to happen.

What made Will so special? It was baffling to Nico, and he knew that it was right there in his mind, but he could not form a coherent thought of it no matter how hard he tried.

 _That's probably why,_ Nico thought. _You came back so that you could identify why he's always on your mind. This is just for answering a pesky little question in my head, that's all._

Nico had been prepared to just get in and get out, just like last time. Unfortunately, Will had remembered some of the customs that Nico had taught him.

"Here, eat. You must be hungry," the blonde said, placing a plate with pomegranate seeds on it in front of Nico. Absentmindedly, Nico finished the entire plate before realizing that he was offered pomegranate seeds. He glared at Will, who was giving him a smug look.

"I hate you," Nico growled.

"But you have to stay for as long as I tell you to now, so even if you hate me, you're stuck with me," Will countered. Some little part of Nico's subconscious that could not be heard begged Will to let him stay for eternity. The larger part of Nico's mind regretted teaching Will that little trick.

"Fine. What do you want?"

"Answer all my questions!" Suddenly Will was an excited little puppy, excitement practically radiating off of him.

"What do you even need all this information for, anyway?" Nico asked.

Will shrugged. "Just some cool random knowledge. Now tell me more about random customs so that I can make you do anything I want you to!"

"Alright, alright!" Nico said, making a mental note to never tell Will about the ways of blackmail.

…

Thirty minutes later, Nico was starting to notice this thing that Will did. It was small, and it was probably out of habit, but it drove him nuts. Nico knew that it probably wasn't a big deal for humans, but still.

Will was playing with his shirt.

Nico tried to ignore it, he really did. But when Will did it again, he couldn't help it anymore.

"Can you stop that?" he blurted.

"What?" Will looked confused.

"That thing you're doing with your shirt," Nico said, losing confidence as he flailed about with his hands, trying to get the point across that it was weirding him out.

"This?" Will started deliberately playing with his shirt.

Nico just wanted to toss this human out of his own window. "You're literally saying that you want to have sex with me. Stop!"

Will's eyes widened comically and he stared at his hands like they had murdered his mother in his sleep. "Oh gods."

"Oh gods indeed," Nico muttered as Will gave him an apologetic smile.

"How do you say sorry?" the healer asked.

"You just say sorry," Nico deadpanned. This made Will snort.

"That's not what I mean and you know it."

Nico rolled his eyes. "Here. You hold your hands out like this."

Will copied the motion that the elf made, frowning as he tried as best he could to lock his fingers in the right position. "Is this okay?"

Nico placed his hands in Will's. "Yeah."

Everything was still for a moment. The two looked into each other's eyes, a sudden blanket of calm overcoming their conversation. Nico noted how warm Will's hands were, and what a pretty shade of blue his eyes were, and how hard his own heart was beating.

Wait, what? His breath caught in his throat. His heart hadn't beaten this fast since Perseus. Which meant that this person, this human, had somehow won his affections. _Oh gods._ His mind raced wildly. _I like Will. That's why I came back._

Nico quickly pulled his hands away, not giving Will any sort of eye contact. "Um… so should I tell you about how to express friendship?"

If he had looked at Will's face, he would have seen the surprise and a sliver of hurt flash through the healer's eyes.

...

Will woke up in the morning to an empty room. He supposed that the elf had already left, since he seemed very out of it the night before right after the hand-holding incident. Was it too much? Were elves all homophobic? Was Nico disgusted with him?

Instead he found Nico sitting at the dining table, head propped up on his arms. A plate of scrambled eggs were on the other side of the table, and a chair was pulled out for Will. It smelled heavenly, but there was only one thing on Will's mind.

"You're still here," he said.

"Good for you. I am still here," Nico replied dryly. "You still haven't released me yet. It's impossible for me to go without defying my culture."

"Can't have that." Will decided to defeat sarcasm with sarcasm. "I officially release you from my household, then. Have fun not defying your tradition."

Nico shrugged. "It's not like I haven't before. I'm one of the few gay elves there are, and I have the power of shadow travel."

"Wait, what?" Will wasn't sure if he had heard right. Did Nico say that he was gay?

"Gotta go!" Nico said loudly, kissed Will on the cheek, and disappeared into the shadows.

For a while, all that was going through Will's mind was: _why you little schist, disappearing on me like that after coming out of the metaphorical closet and kissing me_!

Until he realized that Nico had left two volumes on the table. He picked them up and read the covers. The Appaulus Guide to Healing: Advanced, read one. The other one was called Standard Textbook for Asclepeion Students, by Asclepius. Will's eyes widened. Appaulus and his famous son Asclepius were renowned for their healing abilities in the elven world, and their legacy had influenced human culture in the stories that mothers told their children before they went to bed at night.

A piece of paper was stuck haphazardly in the book by Asclecpius, and Will could see some scribbles on it. He pulled it out and read the note, which was obviously from Nico:

Hope these help. Love, Nico

ps. There are little weird remarks and doodles that I did in the margins. Ignore them. I have no medical knowledge whatsoever.

In that moment, Will's heart softened for the elf, before remembering the softness of Nico's lips on his cheek.

"Oh, I'm not forgiving you that easily, elf," Will said to the empty room. "I swear, I'll drive you out of the house next time."

That swear was soon forgotten when Will saw the first little note in the margins and couldn't help but laugh and think about how dorky and cute Nico was.

 **So! Did you like it? Hate it? Let me know in the comments!**

 **Also, the line break stopped working for a bit so it might not look like the other two chapters. *tear* buT WE embRACE DIFFERENCE IN THIS COMMUNITY BECAUSE WE CAN! yEAH!**

 **-S.**


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